I will miss you dearly…
Yup. I did it again.
I’ve officially retired the @TentBlogger twitter handle and moving forward with @Saddington - for those that have been following me already then you don’t have to do anything new except begin to get used to a new ID.
My reasons are quite simple:
- TentBlogger as brand has undergone a number of changes. I’ve shared a few thoughts here about that.
- As an entrepreneur I am continually involved in ventures that scale way outside of one single blog. Since Twitter is my primary online communication tool it needs to better capture all that I do and am involved in as well as be agnostic enough to scale infinitely. Obviously my last name does this the best as I will not be changing it as often as I do my ventures.
- My trusted team at 8BIT encouraged me to do so. I bank on their opinion more than ever and it made sense for where we are headed as a company and the many opportunities we are entertaining.
Lastly, it just feels good to finally “land” somewhere with the Twitter name challenge – I’ve always held my handle in open hands and never felt completely settled – this really settles it, right?
Now, how did I actually get THE @Saddington twitter handle? I registered it for my mother in March of 2009 – more than 3 years ago thinking, for whatever reason, that she’d actually use it.
Nope… although she just got her first iPad. Stoked about that.
That’s that. Love to hear your thoughts about this final change! Hit me.
Please follow @saddington for updates. This account is now officially retired…
— John Saddington (@tentblogger) September 27, 2012
About time.
ok. cry more.
Wait, what happened to human3rror??!?
Sorry, #trolling.
The changes you’re making are testament to “reinventing” oneself without fear of not being understood… Not everyone will understand or appreciate your “journey” (as some have expressed) but stay true to where you see yourself going. All the best!
Here’s to change; life’s only constant (at least according to Isaac Asimov).
Cheers.
I’m awaiting the day you change your name to Prince.
I think it is in sync with all the changes you’ve been doing. Congrats on the courage to do them all.
Let’s see, originally, I was @grayzhouse, then @beaconhillnw, then @jim_gray for a few minutes, and @jimgrayonline for almost two years now.
I started out as @bluecollarcoach and then changed to @bluecollarjames.
I have thought many times about changing my name but ‘dibben’ is just a nightmare to deal with.
I like the ‘blue collar’ thing. It has so many applications. It’s easy to remember. It gives away my first name right out of the box.
It just works.
that’s some great reasoning. I always struggle through that question of “How is this going to affect what i’m doing 10 years from now. Love where you’re headed with this John.
I agree with Tom. Although I love the Tentblogger brand, I really thought you’d be better off going with your real name. If this blog was your only venture, it would be perfect. But you’re wearing a lot of hats and are a significant presence for at least a few different brands now, so this was a good move.
But what shall I do with this post where I used you as an exception to my personal branding rule?!
+1
My take then is the same as now. No matter how brilliant John is — and he is brilliant, he’s not the be-all and end-all of all things blogging and branding. The lesson is to carefully consider advice from numerous experts (and your mama) before landing on a decision. Test it. See what others are doing and why.
Mindlessly following one expert is never a good idea! *I’m NOT suggesting you or others did that, just reminding all*
good reminder!
Specialization is for ants.
Welcome to the world of folks using their names as their handle.
-@jdblundell
The changes you’re making are testament to “reinventing” oneself without fear of not being understood… Not everyone will understand or appreciate your “journey” (as some have expressed) but stay true to where you see yourself going. All the best!
thx man! appreciate that!
SAAAAADINNGGG……oh. Well. You know.
this. brillllliant. Please post that audio somewhere.
I think this makes a lot of sense. I’ve thought about changing my Twitter profile a few times as well as my writing and involvement in the blogosphere has grown. We’ll see.
I stand by my belief someone’s name trumps any brandname they create for themselves. Nothing is more close to who you are than they actual name you have.
Great move and bold step! Not everyone has the guts to make such changes! All the best.
What will your dad use now?
So are you planning to move all of the content from tentblogger.com over to john.do as well?
This is a totally smart move for you John considering who you serve. A brand is what you make it to be. If your name stands for a brand that the audience you’re serving can relate to, that’s great. A change like this largely depends on your core audience. I recently did a similar change, but in reverse.
My main twitter handle was @RonDawson. My core audience is visual artists and creatives, and I used it as my main communication tool for my blog, DareDreamerMag.com. However, I wanted to be able to do more and more tweets and conversations related to faith and philosophy. Not a topic my core audience is largely interested in. So, I changed my main handle to @DareDreamMag and secured @RonDawson to use personally (and eventually for the aforementioned topics). My new twitter handle is totally in line with my blog’s brand and serves the few thousand people who’ve chosen to follow me because of my tweets related to the art and business of filmmaking and photography.
So, I would slightly challenge @Alex’s comment that a name trumps a conjured brand name It all depends. Even though Ron Dawson is my name, in this case, it’s NOT the best twitter handle to use b/c of the topics I want to discuss under that name. I would start to lose a lot of my visual arts followers if I started quoting evangelists, bible verses, famous apologetic writers, and the like.
I think @Saddington perfectly fits within John’s brand. But, if he started tweeting more and more about style and fashion, he’d create brand confusion and have to change either his brand (and risk losing followers) or create a new twitter handle. Hmmm…@RunwayJohn? Or @Saddington5thAve?